


Winter's Kiss

by ladyillusion



Series: Divergent Worlds [4]
Category: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms, 幽☆遊☆白書 | YuYu Hakusho: Ghost Files
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Audio Format: MP3, F/M, One Shot, Podfic Available
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-06-22 06:09:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19661422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyillusion/pseuds/ladyillusion
Summary: Kuwabara approached what he first took to be yet another frozen statue. But, as he examined it more closely, he realised that, unlike the other statues, this one was of a humanoid form. It was a man wearing a smart guard’s uniform and hat. He carried a sword at his waist.A shiver went up Kuwabara’s spine. The facial features were too detailed to belong to a carved statue. This was a real person. A person who had been entirely encased in ice.





	Winter's Kiss

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter is available in audio form for those who would prefer to listen rather than read. Please note that this is a text to speech recording, which means that there may be some issues with it.
> 
> [Stream or download MP3 via Google Drive](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BOaQOpLMzulrZAwYM3KVL8pc0l8DAZGQ/view?usp=sharing)

Kuwabara broke through the trees with a victorious shout. It echoed in the unnaturally still courtyard, ricocheting off the fixtures of an eerie landscape.

Kuwabara’s grip tightened on his sword hilt as he took in the sight before him, his shout still echoing in his ears. The palace’s courtyard was frozen. Actually frozen. As in, covered with ice, frozen.

His shout faded away to silence. Somewhere in the beautiful courtyard before him came the creaking of ice. He took one hesitant step forward onto the ice-crusted pathway. It felt solid beneath his boot.

Kuwabara moved further into the courtyard, staring wide-eyed at the frozen plants and statues he passed. Even the flowers were perfectly preserved, not so much as a leaf broken off.

The door of the palace stood wide open. Kuwabara entered, finding it in the same state as the courtyard. The silence felt even more oppressive and unnatural in the confined space of the palace’s interior.

Kuwabara approached what he first took to be yet another frozen statue. But, as he examined it more closely, he realised that, unlike the other statues, this one was of a humanoid form. It was a man wearing a smart guard’s uniform and hat. He carried a sword at his waist.

A shiver went up Kuwabara’s spine. The facial features were too detailed to belong to a carved statue. This was a real person. A person who had been entirely encased in ice.

Hastily, Kuwabara moved on, deeper into the palace’s depths. He hadn’t quite believed everything he’d heard about this place. A vengeful fairy who’d cursed a beautiful princess to sleep in eternal slumber? A palace frozen in time? Literally frozen? Hidden in the middle of a dark, thorny forest host to nightmarish man-eating plants?

But the king of the neighbouring kingdom had believed the story. And offered a sizeable reward to anyone brave enough to enter the forest, find the palace and bring back it’s treasures.

So far, Kuwabara hadn’t seen any treasures worth taking. Everything was encased in ice. Could any of it even be moved?

Kuwabara spent an indeterminate time wandering the still halls of the palace. He found the throne room, with the king still sitting on his throne, his face settled into a bored mask as he presumably had been in the middle of listening to his advisors at the time the palace had been frozen.

He found the servants, busy about their work, brooms, buckets and baskets in hand.

He found guards still at their posts, eyes silently staring straight ahead, not seeing anything.

But he didn’t find any treasure he could take. Or any princess.

Kuwabara glanced out one of the windows as he walked up the staircase that should have been made of stone, but was now sheeted with ice. It was curious, but the sun seemed as though it hadn’t moved, despite the fact that it ought to have been evening by now.

Another shiver passed up Kuwabara’s spine as he reached the top of the staircase. The door before him was closed. Kuwabara pressed his hands to it and pushed. A chill sank into his hands, but the door began to creak open. Kuwabara entered yet another frozen room.

A large bed drew Kuwabara’s eye. He moved over to get a closer look.

Laying on the bed was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. Her face was angelic, even though it was as pale blue as the faces of the other frozen inhabitants of the palace. Her eyes were closed and her hands rested on her stomach. Had she already been sleeping at the time the palace was frozen?

Kuwabara touched her face, wincing at the cold sting of the ice on his skin.

Was this the princess? Kuwabara looked curiously around the room. He decided that it could be the room of a princess. Her dress certainly looked fine enough to belong to a princess.

Kuwabara struggled to remember what he’d heard about the fairy’s curse. He wished he’d payed more attention to that part of the story, but he’d dismissed it as nonsense.

How was he supposed to break the curse? He knew that it had something to do with the princess. He was supposed to do something…

Something like… kiss her, maybe?

Kuwabara’s face turned bright strawberry-red at the thought. He’d never kissed a girl before.

But, she was asleep. If it didn’t work, well, no one would ever know, right? And if it did work, then there was no harm done.

Kuwabara leaned over her, feeling both terrified and ridiculous. He vowed never to tell his friends about this.

He pressed his lips as lightly as he could to hers, pulling back as he felt the burn of the ice. He stood, rubbing his hand over his lips to work some warmth back into them.

Something cracked loudly, cutting alarmingly into the still silence like a whip.

Kuwabara whirled to see a large crack appearing in the ice covering the wardrobe door. He flailed in panic. He’d done something wrong. What if all of these people died because he’d screwed up?

Kuwabara turned back to the girl on the bed and stared. There were small cracks appearing on the ice covering her as well… and beneath the cracks, Kuwabara could see the green fabric of her dress.

Kuwabara watched, hope flaring in his chest as the ice shattered into sparkling crystalline dust before vanishing.

She was even more beautiful now that the ice no longer covered her. Her skin was pale and her hair was long and straight, the teal green colour suiting her pale complexion.

The girl’s eyes blinked open, cherry-red irises struggling to focus.

“Um, ‘scuse me?” Kuwabara asked anxiously. “Are you okay?”

The girl blinked again. She brought one slender hand up to touch her mouth. Kuwabara felt his cheeks redden once again in embarrassment.

“I thought I dreamed…?”

The girl’s voice was soft and uncertain. She began to sit up slowly.

“Who are you?” she asked.

Kuwabara suddenly realised his situation. He was in a girl’s room. Alone with her. He was a complete stranger to her.

Rather than rectify that by introducing himself, Kuwabara instead fled from the room, leaving behind a hasty apology.

Bewildered servants and guards milled around the halls as they tried to figure out what had happened. Kuwabara passed by them, earning himself some strange glances on the way. No doubt those people had realised that he didn’t belong there.

“Sir! Sir! Wait!”

Kuwabara paused in the foyer, turning to see the girl rushing toward him, her voluminous skirt clutched in her hands in order to keep it from tripping her up.

She stared wide-eyed at him. “Did you… did you break the curse?” she asked.

“Um…” Kuwabara scratched his head, not sure how to answer. Had he? All he’d done was… kiss her. Had that actually broken the curse? “I don’t know,” he admitted.

The girl reached out, grasping one of his hands tightly in hers. Her touch was much warmer than her lips had been.

“Thank you,” she said breathlessly.

Kuwabara didn’t have the heart to pull away from her when she began tugging him in the direction of the throne room. Nor did he have the heart to further deny the claim when the girl began telling the king that he’d been the one to break the curse.

The king was her father. The girl was the princess. Kuwabara found himself sitting beside her that evening at a banquet the likes of which he’d never seen before. Even the lowliest of the servants dined in the great hall as though they were royalty as they celebrated the curse’s end.

Kuwabara only had eyes for the princess’s smile. Later that night, as he kissed her again beneath the stars, her lips and hands were as warm as summer.


End file.
